


Ghost Hunter

by Jupiter_TheMilkBoy



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Gay Nico di Angelo, Ghosts, M/M, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26273065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jupiter_TheMilkBoy/pseuds/Jupiter_TheMilkBoy
Summary: samael moriarty knew three things. one, that ghosts were real and he would stop at nothing to prove this. two, he wasn't exactly human but that was all right because he had it under control ( let's not mention the time he accidentally set a zombie on his mom ). and three, he was crushing on nico di angelo, hard.ORin which samael moriarty tries to hunt for ghosts while discovering a few things on the way.(lowercase intended)
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	1. Act One - Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Lowercasing throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading! - Jupiter

**chapter one**   
_i nearly_ _die_ _of mortification in front of my crush_

  
— **"MR MORIARTY,** you are late."

samael winced at mr pierce's voice, he had been so so close to slipping in unnoticed. "sorry mr pierce, it won't happen again."

"you said that yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that, do you see where i am going with this mr moriarty?" mr pierce replied sharply.

samael sighed. "yes sir."

"before i contact your mother would you like to explain what it is that is making you so late?" mr pierce asked.

samael didn't know whether or not to be grateful because at least mr pierce was give him a chance to explain himself, explain why he's been late for three weeks in a row now but he knew that his answer wasn't going to impress mr pierce at all. "i've been ghost hunting sir," he mumbled.

the class broke into a fit of giggles.

"ghost hunting?" mr pierce questioned slowly as if he couldn't believe that samael was as stupid as he was for using that excuse. "while i must say that's a new one for me mr moriarty, it's not a valid excuse, i'm afraid i'll have to be contacting your mother."

samael blew air through his mouth, knowing he would be getting one helluva lecture when he got home. "understood sir."

"good," mr pierce told him, "now please take your seat."

wordlessly samael slipped into the seat that was in front of him (again he'd like to point out that he was so _so_ close) and opened his backpack to take out his biology textbook, only...

"crap, crap, crap," he cursed searching through the contents more vigorously.

"are you all right, moriarty?"

samael froze at the voice and slowly looked up to meet the questioning look of one nico di angelo. he swallowed and gave nico a strained smile, "yeah, just peachy."

nico rose an eyebrow. "are you sure, because you seem to be freaking out pretty bad."

samael's cheeks burned, of course nico would see him freaking out about a textbook. "uh yeah, just can't seem to find my bio textbook."

"how does one misplace such a large textbook?" the question wasn't genuine, nico's tone of voice told him that much but it didn't make samael feel any less mortified.

"he probably left it in one of the haunted houses he visited," came the teasing voice of will solace, samael's best friend.

samael wished he could say that the blonde's joke was just that, a joke but when he thought back to his filming yesterday... by the gods, nothing was going his way today.

will must have caught sight of the horrified expression on samael's face because he promptly burst into laughter. "you actually left it in a haunted house?" he asked between laughs, ignoring how the classmates around him stared.

when samael caught sight of the amused look on nico's face he decided he was just about ready for the ground to swallow him up, no human - or more semi human, in his case - should have to embarrass themselves like this in front of their crush.

"mr solace, could you please share the joke with the class?" mr pierce cut in.

will grinned charmingly at the teacher, not at all intimidated by the stern tone (why couldn't samael have such confidence?) "of course mr pierce," he said easily, "i'm friends with 25 letters of the alphabet, i don't know y."

mr pierce looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or to scold will. "thank you mr solace," he decided to say, "but this isn't a comedy club."

"could've fooled me, this class is a joke," samael heard nico mutter to himself. he choked, trying to stop himself from laughing.

mr pierce glanced to samael. "problem, mr moriarty?"

samael composed himself quickly and cleared his throat, "not at all sir."

his teacher stared at him with suspicion for a moment before returning to writing on the board.

— **SAMAEL ENDED UP GETTING** an unimpressed look and a detention slip from mr pierce when the man noticed he didn't have his textbook.

"sammy!"

samael looked away from his open locker toward the source of the shout, it was will.

will had only started attending langton academy that year (as well as nico, not that samael payed attention to that or anything) and he could easily be counted as samael's best friend, that was probably due to the fact that the two were friends even before langton.

they had met when both were six at a lunch that had been arranged between will's mother, naomi, and samael's step mother. both of the woman worked at the local hospital (although naomi was looking to be discovered for her singing) and had become friends. upon finding out that both had boys that were the same age, they arranged a lunch so that the two could meet and they hit it off.

"sammy," will said again as he now stood beside samael at his locker. samael nodded, indicating that will say what he wanted to say. "i just wanted to say that i'm sorry for laughing at you in biology, it was rude and i didn't mean to embarrass you and i'm sorry-"

as he continued to ramble on in apologies samael couldn't help but marvel at how different this will, his best friend will, was to the will that put up a confident, happy-go-lucky front. a part of samael was touched that he was one of the few people that got to see such a vulnerable side of his friend. another part of him wished he could have the talent of putting up that confident mask to anything that wasn't a camera.

"-so i got nico to agree to go on a ghost hunting date with you." samael's attention was snapped back when he heard those last words.

"wait, repeat that last part."

"i felt really bad so i got nico to agree to go on a ghost hunting date with you," will repeated. samael looked torn between sheer disbelief and the want to strangle him. "don't give me that look, i've seen the way you act around him."

for what felt like the millionth time that day samael's face burned in embarrassment. "i don't act any way around him!" he practically squeaked.

"sure," will said sarcastically, "and i'm a vampire."

samael glared at him fiercely. "how'd you even get him to agree to do this?"

"i know him from summer camp," will replied easily.

"so he's doing this as a favor and not because he likes me?" samael challenged, attempting to hide the utter hurt he felt from those implications.

will's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, assumeably to spew out reassurances. he never got to however because a familiar voice cut in.

"moriarty, where and when will we be ghost hunting?" nico asked.

samael swallowed thickly. "uh does this afternoon at 2-"

"detention," will coughed, reminding samael of the slip he had received.

"-4," he corrected himself, "work for you?"

nico nodded wordlessly.

"and um we can meet up at trinity church?" samael suggested.

"gee moriarty, aren't you going to come and pick me up?" nico deadpanned.

samael's tongue felt heavy in his mouth, gods how does one respond to that?

nico cracked a small smile, it was barely noticable but it was there. "i'm kidding moriarty, no need to look so sick. i'll meet you at trinity church."

and with that he stalked off. "see," will said breaking the tense silence between them, "he likes you."

samael cursed him out in french in response.

_1275 words_


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowercase throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading. - Jupiter

**chapter two**  
 _perhaps shakespeare_ _is_ _not_ _a romantic topic to talk_ _about_ _on a date_

  
— **NICO DI ANGELO** didn't know what he was doing. he was meant to be looking percy, he was meant to be looking after hazel but instead he was making his way to a ghost hunting trip with a boy he wasn't even sure he wanted to be around. don't get him wrong, samael was kind in a way that most demigods could never be and he was had a smile that made nico want to return the action but he had a mission, he didn't have time for ghost hunting (especially with boys that made him feel that disgusting feeling in his stomach).

he wasn't even sure why he had stayed in manhattan, he had gone to sally jackson's apartment to search for possible clues as to where percy might have been when he felt a surge of power that he had decided to investigate. when he ran into will solace from camp he knew that he had been right to suspect that the power was from a demigod. he should've left then, will was there and he could handle it but he was curious.

the power surge had felt underworldly, it didn't have hades' feel of power that much he knew but it was definitely a power of the underworld. he wanted to know what it was, wanted to know who it came from so he stayed (although he did make the occasional trip to new rome to checkup on hazel).

but months into the year and neither he nor will could identify who exactly the demigod was and he was getting antsy.

' _perhaps that's why i agreed_ _to_ _this_ ,' nico thought to himself as he walked. _'i need_ _to_ _do something to calm myself and what_ _better_ _way to do that than by_ _ghost_ _hunting with an attract-interesting_ _boy_ _.'_

it was an interesting concept, ghost hunting. nico had seen those ridiculous youtubers that claimed to make contact with the other side but he had also seen instances on those types of shows that could be truly merited as ghost interactions. he knew that samael had a show like that, one that investigates and discusses 'supernatural' instances, but he hadn't gotten around to watching any of his videos although they seemed to be pretty popular.

that thought made him wonder whether or not samael would be bringing his cameras, as far as nico knew samael recorded every attempt at his ghost hunting but again he hadn't watched the show so he couldn't be sure. for samael and nico's sake he hoped that samael wouldn't bring the cameras, with nico's luck they'd probably attract a monster or two.

"nico!"

nico's head snapped to the source of the voice, his hand instinctively going for the ring that became his sword. he relaxed upon seeing the dark brown curls of samael.

"moriarty," nico greeted coolly, walking toward the boy. "how was detention?"

samael shrugged. "better than those i've had in the past, mr prince let me read the set book for english."

nico couldn't help but grimace at the mention of the reading. reading was all ready a challenge with his dyslexia, add shakespeare's nonsense speech patterns on top of that well let's just say he wouldn't mind chucking hamlet into tartarus right in front of william's obnoxious face.

samael chuckled at nico's facial expression, "it's not that bad."

"it is when you have dyslexia and english is your third language!" nico snapped instinctively feeling defensive.

samael startled at nico's sudden defensiveness. "i'm sorry," he apologized, "i didn't know."

the tension in nico's shoulders vanished and he instantly felt bad for snapping, samael had been teasing him and he had responded unfairly. he knew he should've apologized for snapping and told samael that it was all right but nico was stubborn and he couldn't quite form the words, to admit that he was in the wrong.

"what other languages do you speak?" samael asked tentatively.

"my first language is italian," nico replied after a moment.

"i know some italian," samael said awkwardly. "if you'd like to have a conversation."

nico's lip twitched up slightly, while he didn't like it samael was definitely someone that he could enjoy the company of. in small doses of course.

 **—SAMAEL WAS PRETTY SURE** that dates weren't meant to start with an argument. he wouldn't know of course as he'd never been on one (2nd grade lunch time with lucy lorman didn't count) but the romance books he'd read never started out with an argument.

after nico had declined on the conversation in his mother tongue samael had decided it was time to start with the hunt as he liked to start before dark and carry on into the night but first he had to go and collect a few things.

nico must've noticed that samael wasn't leading him into the cemetery because he looked rather confused, or as confused as nico di angelo can look (a raised eyebrow and a glance toward the path they were supposed to take).

"we're stopping at my house first to get some stuff," samael explained.

"you live near here?" nico asked.

samael hummed. "next to is more like." he led the italian boy to the slightly rundown house that was behind the church and beside the cemetery.

samael and nico entered through the faded red door. as the door closed behind the two a feminine voice called out, "samael, is that you?" before samael could reply (and yes it was going to be something snarky) the woman that had called out stepped out from the kitchen to meet him.

michelle holmes was samael's step mother but she and samael wore so much resemblance that people often thought she was his birth mother, add on the fact that he called her mum it was rather difficult to convince people otherwise.

she was a gentle woman who had married his mother when he was six and while it was obvious his mother loved michelle he often joked that she had only married her because of her last name, finding and the irony in a moriarty marrying a holmes hilarious.

michelle was still wearing her scrubs from work but her hair was down indicating that she was most definitely off duty. "who's this?" she asked catching sight of nico.

"this is nico, my ghost hunting partner," samael answered.

she raised her eyebrows then smirked. "oh i see, 'ghost hunting partner', gotcha," she winked at him.

samael's face flushed. "mom!" he complained.

she laughed. "sorry sammy, you know i love embarrassing you."

samael rolled his eyes, his cheeks still burning. "mom, we've talked about this."

"careful sammy, i'm the one that decides whether or not you're gonna get grounded for that email i received from the school today," michelle told him in a sing song voice.

"we both know that you love me too much to do that," samael countered.

she shrugged. "that's true." samael smiled victoriously. "but your mother has no such problem."

he groaned, knowing she was right. "where is she anyway?"

"it's her shift now so go on your little hunting trip while she's still out so that she can't ground you before then."

"she isn't that cruel." but he was pulling nico toward his bedroom anyway.

_1222 words_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Nico might be experiencing some slight 💫🧚♀️internalized homophobia🧚♀️💫 and Samael, my baby, is an awkward little bean. Did you guys like Michelle, she's so fun to write. - Jupiter


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowercase throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading. - Jupiter

**chapter three**   
_a flag_ _of_ _rainbow makes nico want to burn it_

  
**—NICO LOOKED AROUND** samael's room trying not to show too much interest. he had learnt that you could learn a lot about a person when looking at their living space.

samael's room wasn't exactly something that nico would design for himself but it suited samael quite well. he had bright blue bed sheets that covered his single bed and white painted walls although the white was barely visible on two of the four walls. in the corner where his bed was there were a variety of posters, most from musicals that nico was unfamiliar with (he was surprised to see that alexander hamilton had a show dedicated to him but then again a lot of things in this time were surprising) but there were one or two ghost hunting show posters that nico recognized. on the left wall where the posters stopped there were photographs that were stuck to the wall. and on the right wall where the posters stopped there was a rainbow flag.

after spending so much time in this century he knew this to he the 'pride flag'. nico couldn't help but shift uneasily. when samael's mom had mentioned another woman, a woman she called his mother he had immediately drawn the conclusion and while he didn't outright show it, he was uncomfortable. he was uncomfortable with how open people were about their illness, about how they accepted that disgusting part of themselves with no hesitation.

yes he had that same illness, the illness that made his heart beat a little faster when he saw a _boy_ and made his throat dry up when he was speaking to a _boy_ but he would never truly embrace that part of himself. that part of himself was a disease, it was disgusting.

he hadn't thought of what he and samael were doing as a date, perhaps to samael it was as he wasn't aware that what he has, what nico also has, was an illness. he hadn't thought of his attraction to samael as anything more than a symptom to his sickness, that odd feeling in his stomach when samael smiled as the gods trying to punish him for what he was feeling 

he internally wished that in the future, that in this time they had developed a cure for the disease instead of pretending that it wasn't there because then perhaps he wouldn't be plagued by his thoughts. by the overwhelming idea that maybe it was okay to be attracted to men in that way (an idea he wished to tear down with every fiber of his being because it was _wrong_ ).

"-you want to put your bag down?"

nico blinked at samael having been torn from his thoughts, he noticed that samael's backpack had been tossed onto the floor and the he now held a black duffle bag in his right hand. wordlessly he slipped his own backpack off his back on put it down gently, the bag was generally empty as he didn't see the need in doing schoolwork to a school he didn't officially attend (let's just say that his teachers thought he belonged there but the government would most definitely not) but it was still a relief to be able to put it down.

"do you want a hoodie, it gets pretty cold in the graveyard at night," samael asked.

"no, i've got a jacket," nico answered gesturing to the aviator jacket he wore over his black t shirt.

"could you hold this?" samael said handing the duffel bag to nico, they were much heavier than expected. "i need to get something warm from the washing line for myself, else i'll freeze to death."

he left the room before nico could respond, leaving him alone to continue examining samael's room. he noticed the low bookshelf against one of the walls with a variety of books in many different languages (he assumed they were different languages at least because he could recognize the greek, latin and italian writing on a few covers while the rest just looked like letters and shapes due to his dyslexia).

beside the bookshelf was a music stand and a small case that nico knew was the right size for a violin. why didn't it surprise him that samael played violin?

he approached the wall that was decorated with photos. there were a variety of people in each one. will was in a few, varying in age in each one. there were a few of samael and his mom with another woman, nico assumed this was his other mother. he looked away from these photos quickly.

nico was surprised to some pictures with sally jackson in them, she seemed close to family if the pictures were anything to go by (you wouldn't have a picture of a woman and a young boy with two missing front teeth smiling widely at the camera with the kitchen a mess in the background it you weren't close to them). a few pictures had percy in them, none of them looked like him after the age of twelve.

"you ready to go?" 

nico turned to look at samael who stood in the doorway now wearing a black hoodie with white lettering wear the breast pocket would be. nico picked up the duffel bag which he had put down when he had been looking at the bookshelf then nodded wordlessly. 

samael grinned. "great." he turned around, nico noted that the white lettering was written bigger on the back but he couldn't read it with his dyslexia. he whipped around suddenly, startling nico slightly (not that he showed it). 

"i forgot to mention that i plan on filming tonight," samael gestured to the bag in nico's hand, the di angelo boy quickly realised that it contained cameras or something of the sort, "do you want to remain offscreen?"

nico thought about it for a moment, he would've preferred there be no cameras at all, for both his and samael's safety but he couldn't tell samael that. from what little he knew of the moriarty boy he would agree and wouldn't even ask nico why, for whatever reason this thought made nico feel bad. and what harm could it really do? as long as he didn't touch a camera himself, it should be fine. 

besides, maybe someone would recognise his name and conspiracy theories would start about him. nico wouldn't ever admit it out loud but he enjoyed creating a bit of chaos and what better way to do it than showing up alive and young on a ghost hunting show. 

nico shrugged. "it'll be a hassle to edit me out-" he wasn't sure if this was true but here's hoping he was right "-so i don't mind being in your video."

samael gave him a toothy grin (who in the gods' name decided it was allowed to have someone with such perfectly white and pearly teeth?) then bounded over and took the bag from nico. "great!"

— **GREAT?** ** _GREAT?_** **WHAT** in the gods' name was he thinking? _way to go, moriarty_ samael thought to himself, _now he's going to think that you have some weird obsession with him and all you want is to get him on camera._

nico didn't seem to be aware of samael's inner turmoil and only followed him silently through the backdoor and onto pathway that led to the graveyard. 

"where'd you leave your biology textbook?" nico asked out of the blue. 

samael pointed to one of the rundown houses near the gates surrounding the graveyard. nico shot him a look that screamed 'why-the-hell-were-you-doing-your-homework-in-that-creepy-old-house-that-a-homeless-person-probably-inhabits', that's what samael read into nico's slightly judgy look at least.

"i heard noises there the other day so i was spending the night there to see if it's a good location for a hunt," samael explained, hearing himself say that however made him feel crazy and by nico's even judgier look he thought so too. 

"we're not hunting there," samael continued, trying not to sound as crazy as he was feeling, "we're going to into the forest where the older graves are." 

he stopped walking when they reached the gate that opened to the graveyard. he reached into his pocket and pulled out two coins then placed then beside the gate where he usually left his offerings. "greetings to the guardian," he muttered in latin. "i ask that i be allowed to film here today, if you do not wish for me to film please send me a sign."

he waited for a moment then when nothing happened he stood and smiled. samael glanced at nico, who looked as of he didn't know if he should be confused or impressed. "let the hunting begin," he announced and pulled nico through the gate. 

_1471 words_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The internalized homophobia was really, really heavy in this chapter and if it made anyone uncomfortable I do apologize. Also this was more of a filler chapter so that i could explore Samael's character more (from Nico's perspective of course). If anyone was wondering what Samael was doing with the offering and the guardian, it's proper graveyard etiquette to greet the guardian of the graveyard and to leave an offering, hope that clears up any confusion. - Jupiter


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowercasing throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading! - Jupiter

**chapter four**  
 _perhaps your mother being a crazy person_ _is_ _something_ _you_ _should_ _tell_ _your_ _friends before they come over_

  
— **NICO** **STARED AT SAMAEL'S** back looking both impressed and questioning at the same time, he didn't like this expression that had been etched on his face since arriving at the gate. the last person he'd given this look was percy and he didn't like it, not one bit but he couldn't not feel these emotions.

samael seemed well versed in graveyard etiquette, from greeting the guardian to apologizing when stepping on someone's grave (samael accidentally stepped on one isaac oliver's grave often if his knowing the dead man's name was anything to go by) and he seemed to have the utmost respect for the dead. nico knew this as samael had apologized to isaac oliver in portuguese, the dead man's native tongue samael had told nico (nico wasn't sure how samael knew this but he didn't question him).

while it was impressive as this respectfulness wasn't shown as much in this time as it had in the past (before nico's time even) it did bring up questions.

first and foremost why did samael learn this? surely there was more to it than want to prove that ghosts were real. none of the ghost hunting shows he'd watched took their hunting all that seriously, at least not seriously enough to learn and respect the etiquette of interacting with the dead.

also who had taught him? who had taught him that the dead respected as much as he gave them. and his latin upon entering was much too smooth to have been learnt from reading or those sometimes inaccurate language apps. in fact the only latin that nico had heard that could be compared on the same scale to samael's had been that of the demigods of camp jupiter.

as more questions filled his head nico couldn't help but wonder if there was more to samael moriarty than what he'd initially thought.

 **—AS SAMAEL** **LED NICO** to the forest that was home to the older graves he couldn't help but be uncomfortably aware of the di angelo boy's eyes on him.

he couldn't see nico's expression with the boy being behind him but he could feel the stare, it made him ansty.

as they passed the outskirts of the forest samael caught sight of a familiar dark haired woman. she was watching samael and nico with calculating eyes while holding a shovel firmly at her side.

samael smiled at his mother and continued on, not offended that she gave no greeting of her own in return that's just how she was. it took him a moment to realise that nico hadn't followed.

trailing back samael found nico seemingly having a staring contest with his mother. "nico?" samael said bringing attention to himself. nico's head snapped to look at samael. "you coming?"

wordlessly nico followed, shooting one last glance at the woman only to find she wasn't there anymore. samael smirked to himself, his mother liked her escape tricks.

"who was that?" nico asked.

"the groundskeeper, lilith. she's also my mother," samael said the last part offhandedly.

"she's..." nico was quiet for a moment trying to think of a word to describe the woman that samael assumed tried to sound not offensive. "interesting."

ah yes, interesting, the word one uses when they can't think of anything nice to say. sadly samael was unsurprised that this word was used to describe the woman that birthed him, she was... interesting.

"she's not good with people," samael said. "my grandmother wasn't the most _humane_ ," he said the word carefully as if his grandmother would jump out from behind a tree and attack him for insulting her, "so my mother didn't have much of an example on how to deal with people."

"but you're not like that?" nico questioned.

samael snorted. "i was when i was around six until my mom stepped into the more parental position."

they walked silently for a moment. "was it your mother that taught you graveyard etiquette?"

samael pursed his lips and shook his head. "no, that was my dad."

he said the words as if they pained him because they did. his father wasn't able to be around much when he was younger. he only visited once a month, twice if samael was really lucky. at first he didn't understand it but then the _incident_ happened and he realised perhaps there was more to his dad not be around than what he thought. it still hurt when he stopped showing up though. samael hadn't seen him for over five months now.

nico seemed to realise this was a sore spot and stopped asking questions.

"we're almost there," samael said after minutes of silence. "just around the bend." the pathway they were on within the forest was well maintained (his mother wouldn't settle for less) but there was a wildness to it that the outskirts of the forest didn't have.

"here we are." the graves in the clearing were clearly much older with the words on the tombs fading and the quality of the stone not in the state it used to be.

samael placed the bag down and zipped it open. he put up the stand for the larger camera and clipped the device itself on. he then pulled out his EMF meter and his hand hold video recorder and placed them in his front pocket, he handed one of the two torches in the bag to nico and stepped back.

"you okay with sitting on the floor?" he asked nico.

the di angelo boy nodded wordlessly and moved to sit cross legged on the ground.

"awesome." he clicked the on button of the large camera and pressed the record button. "rolling in three," he ran to sit beside nico. "two," he crossed his legs and allowed himself to sit comfortably. "one."

_961 words_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahort chapter, sorry! The next one will make up for it I promise.  
> How'd you guys like it? Thoughts on Lilith? I'm going off on a limb now and letting you know that she isn't entirely human. How about Samael's father? We all know who it is but it's interesting to see Samael's journey in finding out (my Wattpad readers do at least)  
> -Jupiter


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowercasing throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading! - Jupiter

**chapter five**

_usually terrible dancing doesn't lead to a homicidal ghost chasing after you but you know, go off_

– _ **"HEY VIEWERS, IT'S YOUR boy!"**_ *¹ samael told the camera. "with me i have nico di angelo, who i'm sure is super pumped to be a guest on his favourite ghost hunting show." 

"i've actually never seen your show," nico informed him. 

samael stared at him open mouthed then looked at the camera lense dead on with the same shocked look. "i am truly and utterly offended, how could you never have seen my show?" he asked dramatically.

nico shrugged innocently. "i got caught up on buzzfeed unsolved and never got the chance to watch your videos."

samael huffed. "and the ghost boys thwart me once again. you know the crossover video i have with shane and ryan is the only video i have that hit over a million views."

"you met them?" nico questioned.

"i did and how it vexes me to inform you that they're really pleasant company," samael grumbled.

nico let out a huffy type of laugh, almost as if he didn't want to laugh but couldn't stop himself.

samael clapped his hands then cringed at the loudness of the noise in contrast to the quiet area. "that was so unnecessarily loud, apologies to those we disturbed," he mumbled adding the last bit in latin. he shook his head, "moving on." he looked around his seated position for a moment. "shit, hold on!" 

he jumped up from his position and ran out of the cameras view and to the bag beside the device. he pulled out two files then hurried back to his seat and handed one of the files to nico. 

nico stared at him with a raised eyebrow. samael fidgeted in his place. "the research behind today's hunt, i threw together a copy for you at lunch. i probably should've given it to you earlier but today has just been..." he trailed off, catching sight of the di angelo boy's amused expression. "chaotic," he finished lamely.

nico only hummed in amusement and flipped open his file, watching samael transform from his confident self on camera to this rambly nervous wreck on a boy was probably irritatingly funny to nico.

speaking of the camera, samael looked at it once again and flashed the lense a nervous grin. "sorry about that, i'll probably end up editing it out anyway so it's fine." he paused thinking about what he had just said. "okay no i probably won't, editing is work and as a gen zedder i will avoid such work at all costs."

samael knew exactly what will's response to that would be: 'put in as much effort as possible or else it will come back to bite you in the ass'. 

to that samael could only say: 'okay boomer.'

"okay now we will truly move on, without the unnecessaryily loud clapping this time."

samael cringed again at the sound of a loud clap. he glanced to nico who stared at him dead in the eye. "did you just clap?"

"i did. you got a problem with that, moriarty?" nico asked, maintaining eye contact to assert some sort of dominance.

it led to a staring contest, one that samael knew that rose maximoff from english class would call 'sexually charged'. samael looked away first, part to blink in order moisten his dry eyeballs and part to avoid doing something stupid like placing his lips on nico's soft looking ones. that would be completely disastrous.

samael cleared his throat and looked at the camera again. "we should probably get back to the ghost."

nico shifted a little and cleared his throat as well. "right, tell me about gerhad schuring." samael was surprised that nico had pronounced the man's name correctly, americans tended to struggle with the throaty g's.

"gerhad schuring was born in amsterdam, holland in 1923. he and his family which consisted of himself his mother, father, three brothers and two sisters; as well as his uncle and his uncle's son all lived together. they weren't all that wealthy with his mother staying home to attend to the family and his father being a pastor at a local church but they made ends meet. they would've been the ideal family had it not been for the rumors surrounding gerhad's true parentage.

"gerhad looked nothing like his supposed father and more like an unnamed traveler that had passed through the small town at a time that was conveniently nine months prior to gerhad's birth."

"i feel as if i should comment on this because that statement is just to much not to comment on but i cannot think of anything to say," nico piped up.

samael laughed and continued with his narrative. "now i can't imagine the townsfolk had all that much to do so the juicy gossip of a suspected affair was something they all ate up. rumors flew and over time they stretched into dangerous territory. the little town was as christian as they came and let's just say they didn't like the thought of the son of a greek god running around."

"so he was a demigod?" nico asked with an odd look on his face and contrary to popular belief samael was not an idiot and he took note of nico's words and how they implied at gerhard truly was a demigod. 

samael hummed. "well they thought so which is why he was condemned to death by his not-father. with pitchforks and torches right up his arse gerhad fled and came to america where he met one maria bakker, the daughter of a dutch ambassador."

nico let out a loud sigh and looked to the sky as if praying. "when was the wedding?" 

the moriarty let out a loud chortle. "a week after gerhad moved to america."

nico shook his head and mumbled something in italian that samael couldn't quite hear although he was almost certain that he heard something along the lines of 'stupid love goddess'. 

"they were very productive on their wedding night it seems because four months later it was discovered that maria was pregnant. all would've been well had it not been for the rumors of the impending war. and so the happy couple decided to move to france in hopes to protect their unborn child whilst also letting gerhard fight in the war. despite this move however gerhard only became a soldier in 1942, three years after coming to france.

"by that point he and maria had all ready had 4 children with another one on the way. this was probably the reason he fought as valiantly as he did because when the war ended he returned home to his wife and children with a confirmed kill count of over 50 men. you'd think that this would be the happy ending gerhard deserved but alas fate was not kind to the schuring boy. when he returned he found his wife pregnant with a sixth child and if the whispers of the townsfolk was true then a certain greek god was the father."

"can i take a guess at who this greek god is?" nico asked. samael nodded. "the one and only god of the sky, zeus."

samael gasped dramatically. "how did you ever guess that the lord of thunder and being unable to keep it in his pants was the father?" nico let out another one of his huffy laughs, samael privately decided he was quite fond of it. "although i haven't quite gotten to best - or worst depending how you look at it - part yet. dearest zeus was also suspected to be gerhard's father." 

the di angelo boy shrugged in 'what can you do' kind of way. "greek mythology has always been pretty messed up."

"that's true especially once you hear how gerhard died. would you like to take a guess here?" 

"either a woman claiming to be hera murdered him in his sleep or his wife killed him."

"did you read that part in the file?" samael asked. 

"i'm dyslexic remember, the only reason i knew zeus spawn's name was because the font you chose for the title made it easier to read."

samael flushed. "right, sorry. anway, you guessed correctly. gerhard decided to stay with maria and the children despite the fact that she slept with his supposed sperm donor because he didn't want his children to grow up in a broken home. and maria, certain that he stayed with her so that he could have access to the unborn baby in order to kill it when it was born decided to smother him with a pillow."

"tragic," nico commented dryly. 

"truly," samael agreed. "gerhard's body was shipped off to america where he was buried in the grave behind us while maria stayed in france with her children where she was never trialed for the homicide of her husband despite openly admitting to it on multiple occasions. and on that pleasant not, we are done." samael closed the file on his lap and looked to nico. "are ready to communicate with the dead?" 

– **THE IRONY IN** samael's question was not lost to nico. was he, the ghost king, ready to communicate with the dead? of course he was, that was a normal tuesday for him but something told him that this wouldn't be your typical happy meal offering discussion. 

samael stood and clicked pause on the big camera then moved it to the left. he reached into his bag - how much had samael stored in there? - and pulled out five bowls, a lunchbox and a cloth. 

he placed them carefully on the ground beside gerhard schuring's grave then turned back to nico. "i don't know if you've ever cast a circle before?" nico shook his head, he'd summoned the dead before but never by casting a circle. "okay, all you have to do until i ask anything otherwise is stay silent but remain vigilant. i'll ask you to step into the circle after everything has been set up, avoid touching the bowls and do not step onto gerhard's grave, understood?"

nico had never seen samael so adamant and demanding about something before, he nodded wordlessly. samael smiled in thanks and turned on the camera.

"to safely communicate with gerhard i will be casting a circle, remember to always remain cautious and respectful when working with the dead." he bent down and set out the cloth, it had a pentagram in the middle. he put four of the five bowls into the corners of the cloth and the fifth bowl just outside of the pentagram. samael then opened his lunchbox and took out a lighter and some incense. he lit the incense, standing directly on the pentagram and spoke in latin that nico wasn't all too ashamed to say he didn't understand. 

samael waved the lit incense around a bit, letting the smoke fill the area. he put out the incense and held out one of his hands like percy sometimes did when nico saw him using his powers. he turned slowly three in a clockwise direction, nico watched silently fascinated by the process. 

samael then turned to the east and said, "i call to the east, to the element of air. grant me your creativity and your intuition." he pulled a feather out of the lunchbox and put it into the bowl that was placed in the eastern corner.

he faced south then spoke. "i call to the south, to the element of fire. grant me your passion and your energy." he pulled a candle from the lunchbox and lit it then placed it into the southerly placed bowl.

he faced west. "i call to the west, to the element of water. grant me your empathy and your emotion." he pulled a small bottle from the lunchbox and poured the water in it into the bowl in the west corner.

turning north he said, "i call to the north, to the element of earth. grant me your endurance and strength."*² samael extracted a packet of salt from the box and sprinkled it into the final corner bowl.

he turned and looked down at the bowl in the middle. "ik roep aah gerhard schuring, voormalig soldaat, overleden geest," ( _i call upon gerhard schuring, former solider, deceased spirit_ ) he said speaking in dutch. samael placed a small cup of appelmoes, two balls of bitterballens and a kroketi*³ in the bowl. 

"i call upon nico di angelo to enter the circle," samael said turning to face the di angelo boy. nico stepped into the circle wordlessly. "before we commence with raising the energy i ask for a sign that i must stop recording and am not allowed to use my emf meter." nothing happened and so samael removed the meter and hand hold camera from his pocket.

nico took the meter without any coaxing from samael earning him a smile. "in order to raise the energy we will now dance," samael informed nico. 

"seriously?" nico asked in disbelief.

samael gave him an imploring look that told nico all he had to know. samael started singing in a language that nico couldn't recognize and started moving his body in a way that nico could only assume was dancing. the di angelo boy awkwardly started his own movement but as samael's singing continued he became more relaxed and allowed his dancing to become more free and energetic.

nico decided the feeling he had as the ritual continued was one he liked. the dancing, samael's singing and the overall energy all made his mood sing. of course the fates could never play fair and that was when it all went to shit.

nico took a step backward as he danced and too late did he realize his shoes had ended up directly on gerhard schurings grave. he froze, feeling a sudden dread fill his body. he vaguely noticed that samael had stopped as abruptly as he did and was staring at the grave, his hand held camera poised in his right hand.

a sudden sharp sound startled the two boys and their eyes snapped to the source. the emf meter in nico's hand seemed to be going crazy. 

they watched in mild horror as in reverse order the elements were snuffed out. the salt was tipped onto the ground. the water was thrown out. the candle was doused. and finally the feather flew into the sky that was slowly becoming darker as the nighttime approached.*⁴

nothing happened for a moment then a horrible shout filled the air. samael pulled nico away from the grave as a silvery head started to emerge. the ghost of gerhard schuring slowly came out of the ground much like a zombie would in those terrible horror movies. the horrible shout was coming from gerhard nico realised after a moment. from his horribly mangled jaw.

mangled could be used to describe most of gerhard's figure, this made nico realise that perhaps gerhard hadn't died by smothering because there was no way that he had died looking as he did by just being cut off from air with a pillow.

"nico," samael said slowly keeping his eyes on gerhard, "maybe now would be a good time to run."

it probably was because gerhard had just turned his attention onto the two boys. for a brief moment nico considered ordering the ghost to stand down but he shot down the idea just as quickly.

he hadn't summoned gerhard and the ghost hadn't been summoned by means that nico had ever dabbled in, the idea of gerhard listening to him was a fool's wish and nico was no fool. nico glanced to samael who was backing away from the ghost, pulling nico with him slowly.

"you summoned him, tell him to stand down!" nico instructed the moriarty boy. he wasn't sure if that would work but it was the best idea he had without having to summon an undead army in front of samael and his cameras.

– **SAMAEL WASN'T SCARED** of the spirit before him, if anything he was giddy (he had caught the ghost on camera, blessed day!) but he was smart enough to see that gerhard wasn't the friendliest ghost. so when nico - oh gods, nico was with him! - told him to make the aggressive looking spirit stand down he followed instructions. sort of.

"laat hem alleen!" ( _leave him alone!)_ samael demanded looking to nico.

gerhard finally stopped with his insistent shouting and stared at samael with intense eyes. a mangled grin then broke out on the ghost's face and his mouth fell open into laughter. at least, samael assumed it was laughter. the sound that escaped the spirit was awful and unlike any laugh he had ever heard.

"je hebt geen controle over mij," ( _you do not control me_ ) gerhard informed him cockily. "bereid je voor om te sterven." ( _prepare to die_ )

"okay, now we have to run," samael told nico grabbing the boy's arm.

nico didn't question him and the two boys bolted from the scene, nico dropping the emf meter that had yet to stop screaming.

and of course gerhard followed them, why wouldn't he? it's not like there was anything better for him to do (although samael was quite certain pulling out a pack of cards was a better idea than attempting to murder underage children but you know, go off).

samael and nico ran from the forest, praying to every god he knew that they wouldn't accidentally step on another grave as they ran. 

this, samael decided, is much worse than the incident.

ah yes, the _incident_. the one in which the undead thing arose from the grave when samael had oh so desperately wanted a friend as he sat beside a grave while his mother worked. ask the universe and you shall receive it seems because next thing you know isaac oliver (yes, the portuguese chap that samael continually stepped on the grave of by accident) arose from his eternal slumber and decided a fun game for them to play was "eat samael's unassuming mother". to make a long story short isaac was defeated using a spade and samael knew from then on that those things he saw in his room weren't just figments of his imagination. 

the recollection of this life changing event led both to an idea and gerhard to pull samael right onto his arse (so perhaps it wasn't the best time to remiscnent, sue him).

gerhard stood over his fallen form, looking just about ready to skin him and use the skinnings as a suit.

"samael!" nico shouted sounding very worried. and oh wow wasn't that just a delight, his crush was worried about him.

rightfully so, his mind reminded him as gerhard made a scratch at him. he hissed in pain from the pretty shallow scratches that were now on his chest and decided perhaps it was time to run and hopefully execute that plan he had thought up. samael kicked out and lo and behold his aim was true, his feet pushed directly onto gerhard's chest and with all his force pushed the ghost away from him,

not wasting any time samael jumped to his feet, hand hold camera still in hand (and wouldn't that be fun to watch later?) and pulled nico with him as he ran, this time with a destination in mind.

"samael, where are we going?" nico asked as they ran.

"supplies shed," samael tossed back easily, pointedly ignoring gerhard's enraged shouting following them. "why do you ask?"

"well i'm pretty inclined to stay alive and i would like to know whether or not you have a plan!"

"and if i don't?" samael asked speeding up ever so slightly.

"then i'll make one!" nico snapped.

the shed came into view and samael barely refrained from letting out a whoop at the sight of it. "well i have a plan but it might fail so make a plan, we need to keep our options open."

"this is a life or death situation moriarty, not school applications!"

samael chose not to respond instead he got ready to use the momentum from his speed to all but charge at the shed door and have it burst open under his weight. 

samael was hesitant to say that the fates were looking down on (because, hello! he was being hunted by a ghost that was a tad homicidal) but with the plan going as smoothly as it did he wished to do so. 

the shed burst open as planned and samael tumbled in to grab one of the iron spades that rested against the crates he knew was filled with belongings that were his grandmother's (he shuddered to think what was within the enclosed space). 

"is that styngian iron?" nico breathed looking from the spade now in samael's grip to the various iron gardening tools lined around the storage room.

"i think we have more important matters to attend to," samael muttered looking to the ghost that stood in the doorway now looking on with fear.

surging forward samael swiped the spade through the ghost who let out a ear splitting shriek before dissipating completely.

"well that was anticlimactic," samael breathed staring at the spot where the ghost once stood.

– **AFTER TREKKING** back to the summoning site and undoing what remained of the circle nico watched as samael said one last delighted goodbye to his camera before falling back onto the floor and laying down to stare up at the stars.

"this is a great first date," samael commented as nico went to lie beside him. 

nico shot him an unimpressed look. "you were literally attacked by a ghost," he reminded him dryly. 

samael suddenly gripped nico's hand, startling the di angelo boy. "i know," he whispered with a smile on his face. 

_3633 words_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *¹ I give full credit to one Shane Madej for this line, I couldn't think of anything to say and watched Unsolved for inspiration and this is what came out of it. In fact most of the information giving part of the chapter is based loosely off of the Unsolved format.
> 
> *² This is traditionally how I cast my own circles when I'm performing a spell, every witch does it differently so please take this as a grain of salt.
> 
> *³ The foods listed are my three personal favourite traditional Dutch foods (specifically the way that my oma prepares it)
> 
> *⁴ To the baby witches (or those that are just curious) do not fear, something of this nature would never happen. This is a work of fiction and the drama that unfolds surrounding witchcraft should be noted to be just that, fiction.
> 
> Also you may have noticed that when samael speaks latin or anything of the sort I just say '"..." he said in Latin' whereas with the Dutch translations I gave the actual phrases. this is because I hate using Google Translate and will only actually type out things of different languages in that language when I know the language well enough to know I won't make an error in translation. The languages I know include: English, Afrikaans, Dutch, German, French and Spanish.
> 
> And finally I thank you all for your patience and your positive comments on this story.  
> -Jupiter


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowercasing throughout this work is intended. I do not own the Percy Jackson universe, those rights go to Rick Riordan. Thanks for reading! - Jupiter

**chapter six**

_do all friends try to kidnap girls from graveyards? no? just mine?_

– **SAMAEL WISHED HE** could blame his sleep adled brain on what he was seeing. but no amount of sleepless hours could let him hallucinate his crush and his best friend attempting to kidnap lucy lorman. 

it was a little after school and michelle had all but demanded that he get away from the computer screen ("staring at the views won't make them any higher!") and go and help his mother out in the graveyard. 

he hadn't been able to locate lilith which wasn't all too surprising considering she was a woman that wouldn't be found lest she wished to be so instead he wandered the graveyard aimlessly. he passed by the ever busy grave of one alexander hamilton and gave a silent greeting to isaac oliver as he walked past his grave (for once not stepping on it). 

eventually he wandered to where he knew lucy lorman would be. she was there every friday after school visiting her mother's grave. he often kept her company offering his silent support. 

one would think that with them being exes - they dated in second grade - it would be somewhat awkward but it wasn't. lucy for all her oddness was nice and didn't ask questions that samael didn't want to answer. she was currently going through her emo phase (my, my it seemed that he had a type) and often quoted unnecessary my chemical romance songs but samael didn't have any problem with it as lucy still spoke to him when he went through his 70's phase (it was a dark time indeed, one that will frequently teased him about). 

he had prepared himself mentally to deal with a sobbing girl as it was nearing lucy's mother's death date and she was more susceptible to emotions despite how heartless she wished to present herself to be. what he hadn't prepared for was the sight before him at that very moment.

lucy was crying, thrashing in will's grip desperately as the golden haired boy spoke to nico.

he watched open mouthed as the two seemed to come to some sort of agreement and started dragging the sobbing girl off.

samael made the split second to decision to run and leep onto nico's back. the di angelo boy startled, samael used this to his advantage and wrapped his legs around nico's neck. using his momentum he flipped nico onto the floor. gods, he prayed that someone got that on camera because in that moment he felt like he could replace scarlett johansson as black widow.

he jumped to his feet and looked around wildly in attempt to locate a weapon. fate was on his side it seemed - or was it just major plot convenience? - because a little to his left a spade rested against a headstone. he made a grab at it and brought it down on nico's head because surprisingly he was still down (samael guessed that it had something to do with the suddenness of the attack). it knocked him out. 

not wasting another moment he brought the spade to will's head. will who had surprisingly not noticed nico going down (whether it was the fates or plot convenience, he still couldn't decide) let out a yelp and let go of lucy in favour of gripping his head. he turned around and let out a surprised "samael!" before samael hit him in the head again and he went down.

samael looked down at the two. you think you know a guy, he thought.

– **LOU ELLEN DID** not know who the guy was. things had been going according to plan. the guys had gotten the suspected demigod and had been leading her to lou's direction so she could give her a calming draught.

she noticed the boy that approached nico and will's direction but wasn't all too worried. mortals wouldn't be able to see the altercation due to the heavy sheet of mist that lou had put over the two.

except he did. 

lou could only watch as he used just his body and a spade of all things to take down a child of the big three and the head counciler of the apollo cabin.

and after a few moments of shock lou decided to approach. her acting skills weren't all too horrible and she could pretend to stumble over the scene in the same shock that the boy was displaying.

she forgot that in the camp production she had been cast as a shrub with no lines and that her acting skills that "weren't too horrible" had resulted in the satyr in charge of the production to hysterically laugh during an extract from a tragedy. 

"oh my gods!" she exclaimed, unknowingly making her voise sound much too overexaggerated, as she approached the scene. "what happened?" 

she saw the boy's eyes narrow and gently pull the sobbing suspected demigod behind him. "who are you?" he asked. 

lou elected to ignore the question and stooped down to check over di angelo's unconscious form. this seemed to vex and further the boy's suspicion as he pushed the spade head to her as if he were ready to hit her with it. "i said," he all but growled, "who are you?"

lou stared down the spade that was pointed at her to the boy that was holding it with what she hoped was a bored expression. up close he was admittedly more intimidating than she initially gave him credit for. 

she stood, holding her hands in a mocking 'i surrender' position. "i'm lou, i came to tell you sweet dreams." her hands flew to her pockets and she pulled out a vial filled with a green liquid, without a second thought she threw it to the ground and allowed it to shatter.

the effect was instantaneous, a green mist that reminded her of the oracle of delphi's most filled the air. a gasp from the potential demigod was heard before the poor girl slumped to the floor, asleep. the boy however only glared at her harder seeming to be unaffected by the potion's effects.

lou gulped, praying to her mother that she would survive the wrath of this... whatever he was.

"what was that?" he questioned sharply, moving to stand in a better position of defense over the sleeping girl's figure.

"she just sleeping," lou rushed out in attempt to assure him. "it'll wear off in an hour or two."

"so will this," he responded and brought the spade down.

lou hunched into herself in preparation for the blow only it never came, instead a a soft voice said a firm "samael" and the spade hovered just above her head.

the boy looked to the woman who had just spoken. she was a regal woman with sharp features and pale skin that contrasted her dark hair. she wore red lipstick that reminded lou of blood. her clothes were high end, black stilettos over black see through stocks and a dark form fitting dress. she had an air to her that lou had only felt twice in her life. "mother?" she gasped, barely noticing the boy pull his spade to his side again. 

her almost too light eyes fell onto lou. "as flattering as it is, i am not your mother, child." her eyes quickly swept over the scene of the three slumped over teens. "i find that there is much to discuss, come."

**1241 words**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a little bit of a darker Samael, I loved it though it was difficult to put what I imagined in my head into words with this chapter. Poor lucy, she just a side character I decided to spice up with some kidnapping trauma and I feel bad, though it did give us Dark!Samael so not too bad.  
> Also, I don't know if you guys know who the woman is because I didn't exactly clarify. Oh well, if you don't know who she is you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out!  
> Apologies for taking so long to update (actuslly this is probably a faster update than usual tbh), I don't know to wordify my thoughts.  
> Finally, if anyone was wondering what happened with the footage from the previous evening, it has been posted and Samael had been stalking the viewer count. which is why Michelle said "staring at the views won't make them any higher!"
> 
> Jupiter


End file.
